Aaron Rodgers: Green Bay Packers head coach and GM insist they want veteran QB’s return in 2023 | NFL News

Aaron Rodgers signed a three-year, $150 million extension with the Green Bay Packers last March that runs through the 2024 season; it contained a $58.3 million guaranteed bonus for next season that would only void if he retired

Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers celebrates their win over the Chicago Bears on Sunday

Green Bay Packers head coach Matt LeFleur and general manager Brian Gutekunst have stressed that they want to see future Hall of Fame quarterback Aaron Rodgers stay with the team in 2023.

Speculation over the 39-year-old’s future with the team has grown in recent weeks due to the Packers (5-8) sitting some way off the playoff pace in the NFC, and Rodgers stoked the fire further following Green Bay’s 28-19 comeback win over the Chicago Bears on Sunday by saying he would only return in 2023 if there was a “mutual desire on both sides”.

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Highlights of the Green Bay Packers against the Chicago Bears from Week 13 of the NFL season

With Rodgers playing with a fractured thumb for most of the season, and having sustained a rib injury the week prior to the Bears game, there had been some discussion as to whether the Packers would be wise to sit the two-time reigning MVP in favour of for third-year backup Jordan Love for the remainder of the season – a prospect Rodgers said he’d have “an open mind” to.

Rodgers signed a three-year, $150 million extension with the team last March that runs through the 2024 season. It contained a $58.3 million guaranteed bonus for next season that would only void if he retired. He has thrown for 2,864 yards and 22 touchdowns, with nine interceptions, so far this season.

Asked about Rodgers’ comments, and whether he’d want the star quarterback to be back as the Packers’ starter next year, LaFleur said: “Yeah, absolutely. Of course.

“But you guys know how I feel. I have a hard time looking past the L.A. Rams [in Week 15] right now… that’s where my mind is. But yeah, absolutely.”

Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst was a bit more measured in his response, but similarly answered in the affirmative.

“Well, certainly that’s an offseason-type kind of decision, but surely, yeah,” he said on a Rodgers return in 2023.

“I mean, we want all of our guys back. We made a big commitment to him this offseason, so that was obviously something that was really important to us.

“But like we’ve talked about in the past, we’ll sit down with him after the season and it will be something we do together and move forward that way.”

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Former NFL player Avery Williamson and Neil Reynolds discuss whether this could be 38-year-old Aaron Rodgers’ last year with the Green Bay Packers

On any potential discussions to have already taken place with the quarterback, Gutekunst added: “We don’t talk about those things during the season very often.

“We just talk more about our team when we speak. Certainly, that’ll be something we get to.

“But, again, we went through something in the offseason where it was a very big commitment on our part. It certainly wasn’t for one year.”

‘We’ve seen what we need to from Jordan Love’

The Packers are currently on their bye week, before beginning their final four games of the season with a Monday Night Football matchup against the defending Super Bowl-champion Rams (3-9), who are enduring their own nightmarish season.

Were the Packers to drop to 5-9 on the season, a move to Love at starting quarterback for the remaining three games on their slate is something the team would entertain, according to Gutenkunst.

Jordan Love impressed when playing in relief of Aaron Rodgers against the Philadelphia Eagles in Week 12

“I think obviously if we get to that point, we’ll look at those things,” he said. “But, even if we’re eliminated from the playoffs, which wouldn’t be ideal, we’re still going to go out to win the game – and I think that’s really important.

“There’s a bunch of guys in that locker room that deserve that, so we’re going to make the decisions that are in the best interests of us going and winning the game.”

The Packers have to decide by next May whether to exercise the fifth-year option on Love’s rookie contract for the 2024 season, which would be worth in the region on $20 million area.

Love has started only one game in his first three seasons in Green Bay, a loss to the Kansas City Chiefs in 2022. But he showed promise in relief of Rodgers in the 40-33 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles just over a week ago – going 6-of-9 for 113 yards passing, including a 63-yard TD to Christian Watson.

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Highlights of the Green Bay Packers against the Philadelphia Eagles from Week 12 of the NFL season

Gutekunst added that the Packers don’t necessarily need to see Love in further action to decide whether to pick up the option on his contract.

“Obviously, we’ve seen him for three years in practice and doing the things that he’s doing,” Gutekunst said of Love. “I think there’s a stretch here while Aaron has been banged up where he’s had a lot of [first-team] reps, which was really good experience for him.

“I think quarterbacks have got to get in to play a bunch of games before they learn how to win, but I do think we feel very confident that Jordan can move the ball, score points and do the things we ask of our quarterbacks.

“I think from our end of it, we’ve seen what we need to see.”

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